Savage cuts to Bristol City Council’s budget will cost up to 300 staff their jobs, it has been revealed. The dreadful news just before Christmas will mean redundancies – compulsory and voluntary – where the deletion of vacancies, natural employee turnover and redeployment to other roles do not make up the numbers.
The authority has to plug a £31million funding gap in 2023/24, caused by skyrocketing inflation, increased costs and rising demand on its services because of the cost-of-living crisis, as part of a shortfall of between £37.5million and £87.6million over the next five years, and is required by law to balance its books. Its proposed budget has a raft of cuts and savings, including reducing the size of several council teams.
Legal notices have been issued to trade unions and weekly consultations with reps are taking place. The figure of 300 redundancies is in a report by director of workforce and change Steph Griffin to be discussed by the authority’s human resources committee on Thursday (December 15).
